


You and Me

by wack_lumpia



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Abuse, Angst, Animal Death, Anxiety, Blood and Gore, Death, F/F, F/M, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Not Beta Read, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Child Abuse, Shadow Weaver | Light Spinner's A+ Parenting, Slow Burn, Triggers, Violence, angsty fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-17 21:41:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29107236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wack_lumpia/pseuds/wack_lumpia
Summary: “What would we even do once we’re out?” If they leave now, if they run away together, everything that Adora has worked for will be for not. She’ll also leave behind the certainty of knowing what to do from years of planning. Who would she be if they run away from the path that was carved for Adora?“Whatever we want, of course,” Catra stops giggling now and she can see the brunette looking at her with those brown and blue eyes. It's sort of overwhelming to be seen by Catra but it’s also comforting.‘Whatever we want,’ she runs that thought over and over again, trying to gape what she wants. People have always wanted her to succeed, to be perfect, and be a champion. They keep telling her that what they want is what’s best for her, so naturally, she would want the same things, right? And if she wants that, wants what people want for her then she’s not sure if she can run away but something inside her, something buried deep within her, that wrongness that’s been nagging her for so long wants to run as fast as she can with Catra.OrHunger Games AU
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Mermista/Sea Hawk (She-Ra), Perfuma/Scorpia (She-Ra)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 20





	You and Me

**Author's Note:**

> Loosely base on the Hunger Games. You don't need to know about Hunger Games to read this. I've been working on this for months and I'm proud to finally be able to publish this!
> 
> Warning for this chapter: there's a lot of violence and blood. There are some scenes where choking is involved and an animal dying so be please be advised. 
> 
> Other than that I hope you enjoy this!

In an empty hallway of a building deep within District 2, near the mountain ranges overlooking the harsh cold district, grunts and loud smacking can be heard. Inside an empty room, except for the two young warriors exerting themselves towards one another, a thrill of energy seeps through it. The eyes of the combatants dance around each other with a mix of competitiveness and humor. A rare sight to see deep within the district. 

This feeling is what Adora knows more than anything in her life. The rush that runs through her veins, the sweat dripping on her forehead running down towards her jaw, and those mischievous mismatch eyes of blue and brown staring back at her are all that she has ever known. Adora rushes forward, tunnel vision on the ribs of the lithe body in front of her. Her quarterstaff positions for an attack, twisting her body to the right slightly as she runs towards her target, swinging it with strain energy. She almost stumbles as her target dodges her incoming attack.

“Can you be any slower, Adora?” she hears her opponent cackle and sees the incoming staff of her opponent coming towards her face, and she dodges it just milliseconds away from hitting her. 

“Is this what the top student of Weaver has to offer, or are you just going soft on little 'ole me?” Her opponent teases again, the sway of her opponent’s wild brown hair hitting her face as another attack comes towards her. 

Catra has always been a wild fury of a warrior. Adora might be a brick wall that smashes through all her opponents, but Catra is a violent fire that burns everything that stops her. Together they make a deathly pair that can handle anything that faces them. At least that is what Adora thinks, basing on all the years that they went through together in this cold place deep within District 2.

“What can I say? Winning all the time has been so boring lately,” Adora smirks back. If this was not Catra, she would have grunted in frustration at the teasing instead of taking the bait, but it has always been too easy for Adora to be trapped within Catra’s webs. Always so drawn to the young woman in front of her.

Adora is drawn again into the eyes of her opponent. Feeling lost to the dual orbs in front of her, reading them as closely as she can, trying to figure out her opponent’s next move or the words that she’ll say next. Preparing herself for anything. It has always been like this. Adora’s heart perpetually races a hundred miles an hour to try and catch Catra. Lost deep within the inner parts of her mind, she fails to notice another incoming attack. Catra’s staff smacks her on the side of her head, strong enough to be felt but weak enough for her to be able to shake it off. 

“Aw, did I hit you in the head? I hope it doesn’t get bigger than it already is,” she hears Catra cackle again. It makes her heart pump faster, adrenaline fueling her blood. “Besides, I let you win. Didn’t want you crying all the time,” Catra continues with a little squeak in her voice as she continues to giggle. 

Something snaps within Adora, her competitive side taking over her, and she lunges forward again, her eyes dead set on her target. Her quarterstaff hits Catra’s sides without warning, and she hears her opponent grunt in pain. She draws her staff back quickly after the hit, bringing it around over her head, and hits Catra’s ankle. Her opponent falls with a shout, and Adora spends no time as she holds her opponent in place with her quarterstaff poking at Catra’s forehead.

“Aw, you let me win?” Adora’s voice gives out a playful sound as her lips turn into a smirk. “Does that mean you like me? That is so embarrassing for you,” she continues giving her a laugh as she rebuts Catra’s earlier punches. 

Over the years, living in District 2, this has always been a constant between the two of them. It's all Adora knows, really, and she doesn’t know anything else other than these moments. She grew up with Catra, trained with her, and laughed with her. They have always had each other's back. They live a life of training, to be the best and be champions for their district and Etheria. Anything less is unacceptable. It gnaws on Adora’s stomach sometimes.

“It’s not because I like you!” Catra retorts back, wincing as she holds her side. “That actually really hurt, Adora.”

Adora’s laughing stops immediately, hearing her friend’s pained voice. Something drops in the pit of her stomach, something familiar. “Oh, snap! I-” she tries to stammer out but once again, her heart races as her brows furrow. “I didn’t mean to hit you that hard!” she says as she drops her staff to the ground. 

“I’m sorry! I am so sorry!” she offers her hand towards her companion, desperately wanting to make it up to her, the gnawing inside of her, growing bigger.

“Adora, calm down” -as soon as Catra takes hold of her hand, she gets pulled back, and in a blur, Adora’s back is on the floor with Catra straddling her and holds her down with her opponent's staff on her neck putting a little bit of pressure on it. Catra laughs maniacally- “cause I won this time!” 

It takes Adora some time to process what just happened, the gears in her head clicking into place. The shock expression painted on her face turns to a sour one as she glares daggers up at her laughing captor. “Seriously, Catra? That was cheating!” she pouts as she struggles out of the hold Catra has her in. Despite holding on to her pursing lips, it tugs a little as she continues in vain, to struggle out of Catra’s loose hold on her.

“You should have seen your face!” Catra laughs louder, and something in Adora melts a little. “Besides, I didn’t cheat. It’s not my fault you got distracted. I never yielded, dummy.” 

“I was worried you were really hurt! That was low, even for you!” Adora scoffs up at Catra, failing to hide the smile that forms on her face. Her heart quickens once again, and she blames it on the adrenaline of wanting to get out of Catra’s hold as the brown-skinned woman laughs louder at her expense. From this angle where she lays beneath Catra, she takes notes on a new freckle that formed on the many freckles her opponent has.

“You know nothing is too low for me Adora,” Catra says, and Adora swears that she can almost hear her purring as she says this. “Also, “snap”? What, goody-two-shoes Adora can’t say, the word shi-”

“Adora,” a voice in the shadows interrupts them. The little insects crawling in her stomach suddenly turn into heavy cold icebergs sinking into her deeper as she hears the voice. Feeling all her nerves going off all over her body, she escapes Catra’s hold with ease, throwing her opponent/companion to the side. 

“Ms. Weaver! We were just training,” she blurts out as she stands facing a woman wearing a deep, dark, red dress and a mask adorned over her head, hiding her face. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Catra languidly getting up from the floor. The giant iceberg inside her sinks further down as she notices that. 

“Yes, I see that.” Shadow Weaver never screams (not to her at least) but something about her voice cuts deeper than anything Adora has ever heard. It sends shivers down her spine and she feels something surfacing in her stomach every time. She’s used to this by now. All these feelings enveloping her throughout her life, living in District 2. It comes in waves sometimes, yet no matter how frequent it drowns her, she never feels strong enough to face the tide coming her way. Despite being used to these feelings, she still feels like drowning.

She was raised by this woman. She was trained by Ms. Weaver and molded her into the warrior that she is now. Shadow Weaver always tells her that she is the pride of District 2, a born tribute ready to fight for their district’s honor. She hopes to always live up to those words and to never disappoint Ms. Weaver.

She, Catra, and most of the kids in the Academy were orphans, saved to be trained for the honor of their district. They were fed, dressed, and educated. Catra and her were taken under the wings of Shadow Weaver. Everything she knows now, she knows because of her and that’s something Adora is eternally grateful for. 

“I see that Catra has somehow,” Shadow Weaver pauses, as she always does in situations in which she isn’t happy with Adora, “ _bested_ you, Adora. Although you were _distracted_. In a situation like this, Adora, you should never let your guard down. Not even for someone you know.”

She hears Catra scoff at Shadow Weaver’s words and Adora stiffens at the action, feeling something rise in her stomach.

“W-we were just-” Adora can feel the sweat beading down her forehead and the lump forming in her throat. She coughs, hoping to remove the lump, “We weren’t sparring seriously, Ms. Weaver. We were just joking around,” Adora finishes monotonously, trying to control the swell in her throat.

Shadow Weaver walks closer to them and Adora flinches with each step. A hand reaches for her and the cold touch from her cheeks makes her heart stops in a way that she feels like she’s dying. 

“Oh, my dear, you should always take these things seriously. You shouldn’t trust anyone, not even the people who are closest to you.” This up-close, Adora can see every detail of her mentor’s face. The slight scratches on her mask, the decaying wood slowly eating it up and the skin underneath can be seen where there are holes for her eyes. Those piercing green orbs turn to the left of Adora and she swallows the lump whole as she stops breathing entirely.

Adora hears another scoff from where those eyes pierce beside her and suddenly the room starts spinning. 

“Reaping day is tomorrow. We’ve been training all our lives and we’re your best students. I think one day of goofing off won’t change that,” Catra pauses, squinting her eyes more, “Ms. Weaver,” she continues like she was spitting bile off her mouth. 

The hand on Adora’s cheeks leaves and she wishes it had stayed in place despite how uncomfortably cold it was. Her mind runs as her heart stops. Shadow Weaver looms above them and Adora feels small compared to her. Shadow Weaver turns to Catra fully, her head cocked slightly. A beat of silence follows as both her friend and mentor lock their eyes at one another. 

“You should also be careful Catra. A stunt like that in the games might cost you your life if you live long enough. Your opponents wouldn’t hesitate to decapitate you or step on your neck. They won’t give you mercy given the chance, that’s what I would do if I were a tribute,” Shadow Weaver says with feigning innocents and out of the corner of Adora’s eyes, she sees Catra waver, turning her head to the other side with a scowl on her face. 

“But yes, the reaping day is tomorrow,” Shadow Weaver continues, puts her attention back to Adora, “I want you to be at your best for tomorrow. Dinner is ready upstairs, hurry along before the other students finish it all.” Her mentor prepares to leave, her dress sways as she turns her back towards them but she pauses by the entrance of the training room. “Adora,” she calls for her, “I know you’ll make me proud,” she continues and leaves right after. 

She should feel comfort knowing that her mentor believes in her but all she feels is that dread that chases her around throughout her life. Somewhere deep inside Adora, it almost sounded like a threat. As if there was an unspoken “or else”. Despite the lingering cold on her face and the negative degrees on where they live, she feels hot in her body, like she’s ready to combust out of herself. 

“Hey,” a warm hand brings her back. It’s not like the scorching feeling she feels within herself but a beacon that brings her back momentarily. She turns to the source, “I bet you when she was a tribute she won by hiding in the shadows. I doubt that bitch killed anyone.”

“Catra!” She wants to be angry at her companion's profanity but she holds back a smile as she playfully nudges Catra slightly.

“What?” Catra giggles and slowly she’s being drifted back to shore as she listens to her, “I mean, why else is she called ‘Shadow Weaver’,” Catra says as she shoves Adora back. They start a little war, just like what they always do.

“She did _not_ win the Hunger Games by hiding,” Adora throws back, getting hold of Catra and putting her into a headlock, “I bet you she had this elaborate plan and outsmarted everyone just like what we’re going to do.”

“Ok, ok! You weirdo!” Catra pleads, pushing Adora off her completely, “You mean what I’m gonna do? We both know I hold all the brain cells in this friendship,” Catra says proudly, grinning at Adora and she’s enamored by how Catra looks good with a grin on her face. 

Adora can suddenly feel the bubble of humor rising within her. She breaks out into a laugh at the cockiness of her friend and soon, Catra joins in. Both filling the silent cold air with their tunes of glee. In the farthest corner of their district, they fill the coldest parts of their home with warmth and Adora can feel it tingle all over her as she continues to laugh with the one person she knows more than she knows herself. 

“Are we good now?” Catra asks after they catch their breath and silence surrounds them once again. There’s something between the lines of Catra’s question and Adora knows this. It’s unspoken but they gaze at each other knowing full well what it means. Adora smiles then, genuinely and brightly. She shoves Catra one last time for good measure.

“Yeah, we’re good.” It’s a meticulous thing when you grow up in harsh conditions like District 2. They were shown at a young age what weakness meant and what it brings. Showing anything other than what you put on the table in training meant you showing open wounds for people to use for your destruction. But for both of them, they made a secret language all on their own to go through the motions of hardship one faces when living in the training grounds of the Academy. It’s not perfect but regardless, they try to make it work.

“Good, cause I’m starving!” Catra’s head hangs backward dramatically and her hands on her stomach, while groaning, “I heard that they’re serving grey ration bars to those who're going to participate on reaping day,” she finishes, standing up straight suddenly, her pupils dilating. “Let’s go before those meatheads finish them all. You coming?”

Adora wants to step forward and follow Catra but something holds her back and she feels the stickiness of her body restrict her. The monster in her stomach arises once again. 

“Yeah, you go ahead. I need to freshen up a little bit,” Adora swallows down her turmoil as she says this, giving her best smile to Catra.

“Pfft, whatever. I told you that today should be a kickback day but no. You had to wake up early and kill a bunch of dummies,” Catra rolls her eyes at her and crosses her arms on her chest.

“Well someone has to be prepared tomorrow!” She does not feel prepared. Not in the slightest. Deep within the caverns of Adora’s body, she feels something off, something wrong. If she could, she would do a hundred more training runs from the simulators despite her body screaming at her to stop.

“Hurry up, I’m not going to save you any.” She watches Catra walk away and exits the training grounds, leaving her alone in the expanses of her mind and the room. 

She takes a long deep breath, hoping to calm the ever-beating heart that starts to accelerate. When she exhales out the air she sucks, she starts walking in the direction of the lockers where the washroom is also found. 

Showering is a privilege in their district. There’s not much hot water to go around for everyone to enjoy and there’s not much for it to be used daily. A schedule is implemented for sufficiency and practicality, something the Academy highly follows and encourages to the students. 

So when Adora opens the first faucet she reaches as soon as she enters, she’s not surprised that cold water spews out on her hands. She welcomes it unlike the coldness of Weaver’s touch. It anchors her as her head runs a mile a minute. She splashes the water she catches, to her face, hoping the jolt from the cold can snap her out of the wrongness she feels in her stomach. 

She looks up from the sink and sees a ghost in front of her. All pale and looking terrified. The short blonde hair droops down, a few sticking on her face from the water that is still dripping down to the floor. Her eyes as blue as the sky seem smaller and shaky. She loathes this person in front of her. Someone weak and fragile and scared. This isn’t her. This isn’t supposed to be her because who she is and who people expect her to be is someone who’s supposed to be strong and brave. Not this creature who looks like she wants to run.

She looks down at the running water again, quickly splashing some more on her face. She tries to remind herself of what Shadow Weaver taught her. That all that matters is success. Everything else is a distraction, set for once downfall. If she’s not focused she won’t win and if she doesn't win she’s nothing. 

She turns the faucet off and stands there with both her hands on either side of the sink, holding her weight as she steadies her breathing. She breathes in a final time and exhales with purpose. She stands as straight as she can, wiping her wet face with the loose white shirt she wears. She deliberately avoids looking at herself in the mirror again, not wanting to look at the sad excuse of a warrior. Her chin is up and she walks with as much determination she can get but her body is still cold and the lump in her throat never went away. She keeps the beasts that live within her at bay but no amount of brave face can stop them from eating her up. She tries to calm her nerves. 

The cafeteria is bustling with students of all ages when Adora arrives. She recognizes a few of them as she passes by some tables on the way to where the trays of ration bars are being given. She actively ignores them and focuses on getting nourishment. The line that’s usually there is non-existent at this point and Adora freely walks up to the lady giving out the ration bars. Looking down at the numerous trays in front of her, with a glass pane dividing both her and the cafeteria lady, she notices the little crumbs of brown on one tray and the full stack of pink bars on another. 

She’s not quite certain what those are made of and she’s also not sure if she wants to find out. The Academy has always told them that these ration bars have a nutritional value that could boost their strengths and their energy. One bar is enough to fill a grown human adult that could last them for days. Her stomach sometimes argues back with that logic and she hates it for it. She’s learned so much from the Academy and the mission-vision of the school is for all students to succeed in the Hunger Games to give honor to their district. Adora couldn’t think of a reason why they would put their students in harm's way and so, she decided long ago that they wouldn’t.

“Late, as usual, I see,” Adora shakes out of her stupor and raises her head to look at the cafeteria lady in front of her, “Hitting the training room before the reaping day, nothing less for our champion.”

Like almost everyone else in the Academy, she’s also known this lady all her life. She’s nice to her, sometimes giving her extra gray ration bars (which are way better than the rest of the “nutritious” meal given to them). Most of the people here are nice to her, those who aren’t are usually the people she faces outside of her training squad but that comes naturally in the Academy, everything is a competition. Some part of her wishes that weren’t so and then there’s that nagging, itchy feeling she gets when people are nice to her. Every part of her body seems like it’s burning nowadays like something is wrong somehow. 

She smiles at the lady, a natural response she gives to people. “I have to bring home the bacon right?” she forces a laugh despite the fact that her body wants to convulse instead.

“Atta girl!” the lady grins at her, wide and proud, something Adora feels like she doesn’t deserve, “I know you’re going to make us proud, Adora. Ever since I saw you punch that training dummy five times your size, I knew you were going to be a winner,” again, Adora should feel comfort at that but instead she blushes at the lady’s words.

“Last year wasn’t so good for our district. I had high hopes for that girl but I guess she was a disappointment and don’t get me started on the boy, dead on the first night. A shame to our district honestly. How he became a tribute eludes me,” the lady began to rant and as more words spew on her, Adora’s heart rate increases, “But you Adora, I bet you’re going to get them all and win all on your own!”

“Catra will be joining the reaping day too,” Adora chokes out. There’s a part of her that just wants to skip dinner instead.

“Oh yes, Catra. I thought she was only saying that to get the gray kind. Kid got guts I guess,” the lady says this like she’s dismissing the thought of Catra. Adora figures, with all the times that Catra has tried to steal gray ration bars when she was younger, she became a sour spot to the lady, just like any other people in the Academy.

“Yup. Me and Catra are gonna get through it ‘til the end,” this time Adora gives a genuine grin at the lady, feeling more confident at the thought, it diminishes some bile inside of her stomach.

“Mmm,” the Lady hums, avoiding Adora’s gaze this time and completely turning her back towards her. People also always do this to Adora. They walk on eggshells whenever Catra is mentioned, it confuses her because she’s pretty sure she was as much of a delinquent as Catra was back when they were kids.

“Anyway, I’m sure you must be hungry after all that training,” the lady goes back to Adora with a plate in hand, “I gave you a little extra to make sure you get your strength up for tomorrow,” she finishes and hands Adora the plate with a couple of gray ration bars on it.

“Ah, thank you,” Adora gives her a tight smile as she accepts the plate, unsure what else to say.

“Don’t forget to also hydrate while you’re at it! You gotta be in tip-top shape for tomorrow,” Adora’s smile tightens more at the thought of that but nods nonetheless. She thanks the lady behind the glass displays again and b-lines straight to the watering station. 

Adora fills a total of three cups of water and balances them on her tray. She scans the crowded cafeteria, still pointedly ignoring the people around her. She knows they're staring at her, eyes following her as she passes by table after table, she’s not quite sure why but she’s used to it by now. 

A couple of mismatch eyes catch her attention. The shining brown and the glistening blue stuns her for a moment, no matter how long she’s known them, she still gets stunned. To her, those are the only eyes that are allowed to stare at her. She smiles a little to herself as she walks closer to those orbs. She feels like she’s getting tug towards them and she’s letting them consume her.

“Took you long enough to get here dummy,” Catra sneers at her, tray already empty, “I can’t stand being alone with these bozos,” she points to the rest of the occupants of the table.

“The feeling’s mutual,” the person in front of Catra, sneers back at her. She’s also wearing a white shirt like Adora, her dark skin contrasting it. Her brown locks tied neatly to not obscure her face. 

“Come on guys, we’re all friends, and look! Adora’s even here! Aren’t you glad the whole squad is together?” A scrawny blonde boy, lighter than Adora’s, pipes up. His tray has a barely eaten pink ration bar on top of it. Both women scowl at the unwanted comment and Adora can only sigh at the two in exasperation. 

“Shut up Kyle! No one asked you and besides, we’re not friends,” the girl beside Kyle shot back at him. Adora sits in front of him, next to Catra, and gives him an apologetic look.

“What, too good for us to be your friend, Lonnie?” The girl, whose name is Lonnie, only glares back at Catra’s snide comment.

“You’re not even on my level, Catra.”

Adora stiffens at the tense atmosphere as the two of them have a staredown. She sighs again, not wanting to deal with this tension tonight. “That’s enough. Can you not fight tonight, it’s our last day and I’d like to enjoy it while it lasts,” she reprimands the two and she can feel Catra loosening up beside her. She starts picking up her ration bar, unwrapping it meticulously, hoping no crumbs would fall so she can savor everything. Their table falls quiet and it makes Adora stop unwrapping at how quiet it got.

"You’re lucky Adora got a leash on you so tight,” Lonnie mutters under her breath that Adora hopes that she’s the only one who hears it but it starts an onslaught of reaction and not even a beat, Catra is up on her feet ready to jump at the girl in front of her. Adora barely caught the waist of the heterochromatic eyed girl, body blocking her from harming Lonnie.

“What did you say you fucking bitch!” Catra screeches, fighting the hold that Adora has her in.

Lonnie remains seated, smirking up at Catra. The crowd of students in the cafeteria slowly notices the commotions and Adora fears that some peacekeepers will come and deal with them.

“Will you two knock it off! Goddammit, today is our last day!” She pushes Catra back down in her seat and tries to calm her down, “Can we have one night where you two aren’t at each other’s throats? Jeeze,” Adora finishes, settling back into her seat. She watches the two for a while, looking at them both sternly. Catra slumps her back and looks the other way while Lonnie goes back to her half-eaten brown ration bars. It’s Quiet again and the tension settles back down as both parties calm down. Adora sighs once again and continues to unwrap one of her ration bars.

“So, Rogelio, how are you today?” Adora asks, looking up at the big man that has been sitting silently at their table. His bright green hair stands out from all of them at the table. Catra told her once that Rogelio is an avox. She’s not really sure what that means but Catra also told her that it’s someone from the capitol who got their tongue cut off. 

“ _Doing good. We did group trial runs today,_ ” Rogelio signs, “ _Lonnie led us today since you guys had your own thing. It’s not the same without you guys but Lonnie led us well!_ ” he finishes, smiling at Lonnie who blushes at the compliment.

She’s proud to hear it. Any other person would feel resentment at the feeling of being replaced but she’s proud of her team. Like Catra, she grew up with them. Placed under Weaver’s care and guidance to be a champion tribute. Ms. Weaver would always tell her that she chose the team for her, to practice leadership. Her mentor would never say teamwork even if it feels like training with these people is helping her with her teamwork skills. 

For what little she knows and for what little they have, this is the closest thing to a family for Adora. 

“I bet she did!” she exclaims, mouth full of rations.

“Gross. Didn’t _Shadow Weaver_ teach you not to eat when your mouth is full? You’re spitting out food everywhere,” Catra says in disgust, wiping invisible food off herself. 

“I’m hungry! I’ve been training all day today,” she replies to Catra taking another bite of her ration bar. Catra looks at her in disbelief.

“I can’t believe that bitch actually gave you two gray ration bars, she barely gave me one,” Catra grumbled, flicking her tin foil at the center of the table.

“Will you stop calling everyone a bitch,” Adora reprimands

“Will they stop being a bitch?” They both stare at each other challengingly. There’s a smirk that’s fighting to form on Adora’s face but she tries to keep it straight.

“You know Catra, if you actually did things seriously, like us, they wouldn’t doubt you,” Lonnie interrupts them, popping a decent amount of brown ration in her mouth. Adora misses the eye roll that Lonnie gives them.

“Oh, so be more like Kyle, where he hides and cowers? Noted,” Catra says, putting a hand under her chin, her arm resting on the table, leaning her weight on it, a bored expression on her face.

“Hey! I’ll have you know I actually did good in training today,” Kyle points out, his pink ration bar finally reaching the halfway point. Adora cringes inwardly noticing that.

“What did you do? Cower and hide until everyone died?” Catra examines her nails, not even bothering to look up at the small blonde. Adora continues to eat in silence, watching this unfold. 

She knows how… Unlucky, Kyle can be but she also knows how skillful he can be. He was picked by Weaver for a reason. 

_The best of the best, only for our future champion._

Weaver once told her when she introduced the rest of her teammates to Adora. 

“ _Actually, if it weren’t for him, we would have lost the simulation,_ ” Rogelio chips in, putting his arm around Kyle’s shoulders after singing to them. Adora smiles a little at that, her face still full of the gray ration bar that’s rapidly melting inside her mouth.

“It was Lonnie’s idea actually. I mean, I feel like I would have done it anyway but a little motivation helped,” Kyle sheepishly adds, taking another tentative bite out of his pink ration bar.

“By motivation, you mean if I hadn’t screamed at you to get out we wouldn’t have survived that test,” Lonnies throws a piece of her ration bar at Kyle as she turns to him, emphasizing her frustration.

Catra and Adora quietly laugh at the scene while Rogelio rolls his eyes and tries to clean the mess on Kyle’s face. These are special moments that Adora’s little heart calms itself. She remembers all moments like these, thinking how little she witnessed them but they’re all special nonetheless. Of course, there’s still that part of her insides that says differently. Her heart might be calm but the monster deep in her stomach begs to differ. She can almost hear a voice when she realizes the knot inside of her is back.

Adora coughs, trying to straighten herself out from giggling, “what happened anyway?” she turns to them, hoping the knot unravels itself.

“We set out traps around where the supplies are, so if they try to get near them, it explodes along with them,” Lonnie looks at her bar this time, her face scrunches as she recalls, “but we didn’t expect there to be more holograms, so me and Rogelio got downed by these two that jumped us. Kyle was hiding near where the supplies are and I had to shout for him to activate the bombs.”

“The bombs exploded, tributes near the area exploded with it and the two that downed us got distracted by the bomb and we killed them. Simulation over,” Lonnie finishes with another bite out of her ration bar, not at all looking proud.

“Luring the tributes to a trap using supplies they need. Smart,” Adora smirks at Lonnie.

“In a real-life situation, it might not have worked. There are too many factors that a simulation just can’t show. If Shadow Weaver was there, she would have made us do it again until we got it _perfect_. Even if it meant skipping dinner.” The way Lonnie says perfect makes Adora shiver in thought. Anything less is not acceptable from Ms. Weaver, a thought that has been ingrained in her for all her life.

“Well fuck, Weaver. All of you got out, right? In real-life situations, as long as you survive it doesn’t matter if you executed it perfectly,” Catra says, dropping her arm back on the table while her other hand reaches for the tinfoil ball and flicks it off the table.

The table goes quiet again, neither looking at the other. Adora looks up and eyes every one of her teammates. She finishes the last bite of one of her ration bars, swallowing it while she folds the tinfoil it covered.

“Either way, you still did well. You capitalized on the strengths and weaknesses of your team and killed off the remaining tributes in one go,” she continues to fold the tinfoil in perfect alignment, not looking up at Lonnie as she speaks, “that’s something to be proud of. Next year when you volunteer for reaping day, you’re going to do great and maybe me and Catra will see you in the victor’s village,” she finally looks up at Lonnie, looking her in the eye as she says this.

A look of uncertainty looks back at her, something Adora doesn’t expect. Those brown orbs broke out of the gaze of Adora’s blue and she turns her head fully to the other side, avoiding Adora’s look. 

“Sure,” Lonnie mumbles and Adora’s not sure why the air is thinner than before or why it’s suddenly hard to swallow.

Adora brushes it off by trying to open her other ration bar. She can hear the conversation get to pick up by Kyle again while Rogelio muses him. She feels a slight nudge on her arm, she turns her head to the source and sees Catra with her eyebrow raised, an inquisitive look plastered on her face.

“Looks like we have an audience,” Lonnie cuts off Adora from saying something. They turn to where Lonnie faces and sure enough a whole table stares at them while having their own conversation.

Adora examines them a couple of tables away from where they sit. All of them are built in a way that’s totally different from her squad. Their muscles are more defined and bulge out of their shirts. Adora is not a stick and she also knows Rogelio and Lonnie are the same, but the difference of muscle definition between them and the table staring at them currently is obvious. They’re not orphans like them, forced to eat whatever the Academy has to offer. Unlike some students who get to go home or get packed meals of better sustenance. Adora’s not complaining, for her; the meals should be enough and maybe it’s just her not training hard enough to get more defined muscles like them but either way, she knows they’re not orphans.

As she studies them, she sees the hunger in their eyes, the kind of hunger that’s feral and wild. One of them, a big boy whose hair has a dirtier blonde than Adora’s, stares directly at her. She tries to appear confident as she stares back directly at him but the lump in her throat says otherwise.

“I heard he skipped a year to join for tomorrow’s reaping,” Kyle pipes up, leaning on the table like he’s saying a secret and motions for the boy looking at Adora, “they said that he trained day and night only stopping to eat, drink and sleep,” the blonde boy continues, looking at his hands as if trying to fathom how that could be.

There’s a growing itch creeping up at Adora’s arms and she stops herself from scratching it. Her eyes still focus on the hungry eyes staring back at her.

“I guess someone’s going for your ass Adora,” Lonnie muses, finally looking back at Adora with an amused smirk on her face. The itch on Adora’s arm only grows from that. “I can’t believe he’s out training you. He out trained the golden child!”

That comment, it’s enough for the lump on her throat to drop to the pit of her stomach. It hollows her insides as it passes.

“ _The girl beside him, she was in one of our classes before. She’s joining him tomorrow._ ” Adora has to break eye contact to see Rogelio’s hand signs. She looks back at the table again and this time looks past at the boy still eyeing her. She sees a girl with brown hair tied in a ponytail with bangs almost covering her eyes. It’s hard to see if she also has eyes on Adora or just their table in general, maybe even on Catra. That makes Adora’s heart jump a little at the thought, she would much rather have them look at her than Catra, take the heat instead.

She focuses on the two on the table, studying them closely. They look well trained and strong enough to handle anyone. Adora has half a mind to run out of the cafeteria and hit the gym to train. The pit burning her insides grows, the more she dwells on that idea. 

Her body loosens as her mind goes overdrive. She glances one last look at the pair where they sit and looks away entirely. She fixes her eye back at her opened ration bar down, ignoring the conversation around her table about the reaping day tomorrow and about the two possible tributes. Her surrounding sounds like static where the pitch goes higher and higher. The pit that fell into her stomach now threatens to erupt out of her. The hand that doesn’t hold her food, grips at the bench where she sits, feeling her knuckles go numb. 

She can still feel eyes on her, almost burning a hole through her head, daring her to look back. She can’t bring herself to look back or anywhere else for that matter. She lets go of the bar on her hand and tries to loosen the other, taking a deep breath as subtly as she can. 

“Here,” she interrupts the conversation, sliding her plate towards the center, “training hard and eating too much is not a good combo.” They stare at her for a second, stopping their conversation. Lonnie shrugs and grabs the plate towards, breaking the piece into four (not so equal) parts, and slides it back to the center, taking her own piece.

Kyle follows without a second thought, munching it quicker than his pink one that’s still on his plate, Rogelio is much more reserved than the two but finishes it with two bites. Adora eyes the last piece still untouched on the plate. She feels herself sweat as she still feels eyes on her. She cranes her head slowly, catching those brown and blue watching her intently. Narrow eyes make her soul leave her body. They begin their unspoken argument.

Catra breaks first, shaking her head at Adora then reaches out to grab the plate. She doesn’t eat it but instead wraps it up in the tinfoil beneath the ration bar. Adora isn’t really surprised by that.

There are days in the horde in which students don’t get a chance to eat. Adora has her fair share of starving nights when she stays up late perfecting a move Ms. Weaver taught her.

So saving a piece of your food to consume later isn’t really a new concept, especially to Catra. Adora recalls all the other times she’d save part of her ration bar for Catra after being denied supper. She remembers the first time, the heterochromatic eyed girl reluctant to accept what Adora offered.

How far they’ve come, from the small orphans they once were, but Adora knows- no, she can feel it deep inside that she’s still the same scared orphan child from before.

Hoping to drown that thought quickly, she reaches for one of the three cups of water she took. She finishes it in one go and soon she reaches for another, doing the same as the first one. It quells the thing that’s been eating the insides of Adora. She downs the last cup just as quickly as the rest, her tablemates paying her no mind as she’s always done this. 

“Kyle! Will you finish your goddamn pink bar already!” Adora is taken out of her head to hear Lonnie exclaim at the poor boy in front of her.

“I’m sorry! It’s just- How is this edible?!” Kyle frantically motions to the pink monstrosity in front of him that still has yet to be consumed.

“Then why the hell did you get it then? You know it’s the worse out of all of them,” Lonnie sounding exasperated huffs at Kyle. Adora agrees with this sentiment and maybe everyone in the Academy as well. She side-eyes the brunette beside her who is being quiet while this happens.

“I just thought that if I try it again, I’ll like the taste this time,” his voice cracks a smidge towards the end as he desperately defends himself. Adora wonders how this boy is still alive.

“What the fuck Kyle?” Lonnie words out what the rest of the people at the table were thinking. Suddenly, Rogelio grunts getting their attention. He motions to the plate in front of Kyle, waving his hands towards him. Kyle obeys without a word and in one swift motion, Rogelio eats what’s left of the pink bar without hesitation. Adora winces in pain for him.

“You’re a beast, Rogelio.” A buzzing sound erupts the whole room and immediately the occupants of the cafeteria slowly stand and start to leave. Their table follows suit, Adora picks up the empty cups she brought and places it back on her tray. She glances back at Catra, the brunette in question avoids her eyes as she stands and slides Adora’s plate towards the blonde. When she reaches for the plate, Catra leaves without a word.

That night, as she lays at the bottom of their bunk bed, she gazes up at the bed above her, already accepting a sleepless night. She tries to fight it, tries to lull herself to sleep and ease her mind but her efforts are futile. She can hear the quiet snoring from a bunk beside her, the slight rustle of sheets as another toss on their bed. She remembers her younger years where students from the outside got enrolled and classes were starting. She remembers those sleepless nights caused by whimpering and crying from all around her. She remembers the girl above her, the silent cry for help, seeing the girl form into a ball inside her blanket. 

Adora twists herself to the side, trying to clear her mind of memories she doesn’t need to remember at the moment. It pesters in her mind, crawling slowly to consume her. She twists again to the other side, trying to snuggle deeper into the thin blanket the Academy gave but her body settles with unsettlement, unsatisfied with any position she turns to.

“Adora,” a voice in the dark stops her from fidgeting more. She surveys the dark air and is surprised to meet brown and blue eyes gazing back at her blues.

“D-did I wake you?” she whispers, trying to find answers on Catra’s face. Adora can only see Catra’s mismatched eyes and she finds comfort in them so quickly. Despite the cold air and the broken heater the Academy offers in their dorm room, Adora has never felt warmer with the woman this close to her, “I’m sorry. I’ll try to keep still.”

A noise cuts through from the silent night and she knows Catra is smirking at her, she can see the ghost of it in the dark.

“No, dummy. You’re fine,” her eyes adjust from the darkness and she sees Catra stand, her hands outstretched for Adora to take, “Come on, get up.”

Adora blinks once and then twice, feeling gobsmack at the notion.

“What?”

“Grab your jacket and let's go. I want to visit the tower,” Catra insists, unfazed by Adora’s confusion.

“Catra, it’s the middle of the night, and reaping day is tomorrow. Go back to sleep,” Adora tries to stand her ground and not give in. Catra crouches back down to Adora’s level and her feature softens. Adora is even more blown away by that.

“I can’t sleep and I know you can’t either,” Catra reaches her hand out to touch Adora’s shoulder as she continues, “might as well use this time to say goodbye to the tower.”

Adora gives in. She always does for Catra, she doesn’t even know why she tried to fight it. They find themselves just outside the building of their dorms, huddled in with Academy grade winter coats and gloves, which is not much considering Adora’s arms feel like ice blocks and her fingers barely holding on to the flashlight she holds. There’s no blizzard at least just the cold snow on the ground beneath them and freezing air breezing past them. 

They sneak around from any peacekeepers patrolling at night, hiding behind crates and walls. Once they reach the outside of the Academy’s compound they walk leisurely with practice knowing when and where the guards will be.

As soon as they reach another fence gate, a few meters from the Academy, they go back to walking cautiously. They find a small opening on the fence. It was cut up in a way that a person can fit. One by one they crawl in easily, avoiding the sharp edges of the wires.

“Ready, halt!”

They freeze in their tracks, hearing those commands, and frantically run over to the nearest corner to hide. Adora pops her head out to inspect where the sound came from and sure enough, a platoon of soldiers line up in front of what she assumes is their commanding officers, who are helmetless compared to the rest.

“They’re up late,” she comments, observing them from afar. There’s commotion with the commanding officers, talking to themselves while their platoon stands perfectly still.

They’re peacekeepers, sworn to protect Etheria at all cost. Their white armor goes perfectly well with the white snow around them. Adora learned years ago when she was tasked to train outside alone to endure the cold weather, that the training ground for up and coming peacekeepers is just beside the Academy. She remembers being distracted, watching them train and drill sergeants giving orders. It’s an amusing thought how The compound for peacekeeper training grounds is right next to the Academy. Soldiers marching in all directions commands being heard from miles away. She thinks about how if her life went in a different direction than her staying at the Academy, she might have joined them. She’s not sure if things will be different from what she’s lived so far but she sometimes indulges in those thoughts.

“They’re probably getting ready for tomorrow’s _event_ ,” Catra’s voice pulls her out of her vigor and she goes back to watch the soldiers a few feet away from them. 

“Do they need to be that thorough?” Adora asks, still eyeing them from afar. Another peacekeeper joins one of the commanders, rushing up to their side and speaking to them, it makes her wonder what they’re talking about.

“That’s ironic for you to ask,” Catra comments and Adora twists her head back at the brunette questioningly.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Adora is genuinely confused by that, not really sure what her friend means.

“Nothing- nevermind,” the bi-colored-eyed girl waves her gloved hand in front of herself, signifying to Adora to drop it. “Tomorrow’s reaping day is the biggest reaping day of all of Etheria. I think it’s safe to say that extra precaution is needed,” Catra finishes, not at all sounding interested.

Adora doesn’t respond but simply hums at that. She goes back to the soldiers and she sees the other one running back to where they came from. 

She doesn’t really understand why their district has a lot of hype during reaping day, she recalls her first event she witnessed. Ms. Weaver had brought her, in preparation for her training. It was everything she expected, she’s sure that other districts have done a better job with their own reaping day. She hasn’t actually seen what other districts do, she mostly watched her own districts reaping day yearly, mostly because those were the only reapings Ms. Weaver would show her. She thinks it’s for her to focus only on their district's traditions so she can do better.

Adora wishes she got to witness at least one reaping of the other districts but she guesses that Ms. Weaver knows best when it comes to her training, that’s what her trainer says anyway.

“Forward, march!” The peacekeepers follow the commandment of their commander, moving in perfect sync as they march forward to wherever destination they are going. Adora is half amazed at them and half terrified at ever getting on their bad side.

“They’re moving,” she announces to Catra, looking in every direction making sure there’s no one else nearby, “let’s go.”

They move in the dark in silence, opting to turn off their flashlights to not be seen by any patrolling peacekeepers above. They avoid any light that shines through them and walks within the shadows going towards the other side of the fence of the compound. 

When they reach the fence wall, Adora turns her flashlight back on, shining it along the wires, searching for something. 

“There it is,” Catra calls out, pointing towards another hole in the wall, a little smaller than the first one they went through.

“Why is this always so hard to find?” Adora asks, letting Catra crawl through it first.

“Uh, because you made it too small that we can barely fit?” Catra answers her, getting through without a scratch.

“I made it small enough to not be seen! Besides we can fit just fine,” she huffs back, getting ready to crawl in as well, her hands touching the snow and freezing instantly from it.

“You made it too small.” Adora pauses and looks up at Catra on the other side of the fence, pointing at her with a bored expression. She puffs her cheeks at that and begins to crawl ungracefully, unlike Catra. 

“Then you should have been the one to cut it then,” Adora bites back at Catra, struggling a little to not hit the sharp wiring. She crawls through meeting Catra’s feet on the other side. She looks up to greet the brunette’s smirking face looking down at her. Adora scowls at that, standing up instantly and brushing off some snow on her coat. She hears a melodic laugh afterward and the sourness on her face fades in a snap.

“You know you’re the muscle,” her friend emphasizes by holding on to Adora’s biceps, squeezing them a little. Unconsciously, Adora flexes them, her face feeling warm despite the low temperatures, “and I’m the brains. That’s how this relationship works.”

She sputters in embarrassment for different reasons altogether, “I have a brain Catra and yes, I do use it. Thank you very much,” she humphs at her companion not even trying to get away from Catra’s hold on her arm.

That earns her another melodic laugh and she hates how she feels disappointed when Catra lets her go.

“Sure, Adora,” Catra continues to giggle and it makes Adora sink in ways that she feels like flying instead of sinking. “Now come one, my butt is freezing.”

Adora follows Catra’s lead, walking away from the fence, their boots making a dent with each step they take. They move towards the rocky terrains that lead to the mountain top. The path now looks impossible to climb from the snow that covers it. Adora kneels down and starts digging at the snow, feeling her fingers sting from the cold.

“Can you light me up, I can’t see,” she instructs Catra without looking up from her digging. A light shines through and there she unravels a rope as frozen as her fingers. She grabs hold of it and pulls it towards her, revealing more along the walls of the mountain of snow.

“Are you going to fall on your butt again?” Adora whirls her head towards Catra while still holding the rope.

“That was one time, Catra. I think I’m better at climbing than when I was 7,” she explains herself, not wanting to bruise her pride.

“No it wasn’t, you fell multiple times and you still suck at climbing. You’re like, the slowest person I ever met,” Catra crosses her arms jutting her hips a little as she faces Adora with one eyebrow raised, clearly unimpressed by the blonde.

“I was trained by the best mentor in the best Academy for the games in all Etheria. I think I know how to climb and I am fast!” Adora barks back at her friend, shoving her just a little.

“You’re also an idiot and I don’t trust idiots who can’t climb,” Catra rolls her eyes at her.

“You don’t trust my skills?” She feigns a hurt expression, her other hand holds her chest, and her eyebrows furrow. “Oh, how will I ever gain it back!” She dramatically drops her head back, closing her eyes for effect.

“You’re such an idiot!” Catra shoves her with such force she has to take a step back to catch herself, she smiles at the tiny upturn of Catra’s lips as she looks closely. “You better work to gain my trust back, Grayskull. I don’t give them out for free you know.”

She grins fully this time at those words. Her heart beats faster than her mind runs and she feels her hands sweat inside her gloves. She’s known for a very long time that she would do anything for Catra. Just for her smile alone, she would run a hundred laps at the Academy’s running field. Adora doesn’t quite understand why that’s so but she does care deeply for Catra.

She offers the rope to the brunette like she’s offering something else to her. It almost feels like a piece of her soul but that doesn’t quite fit it. She likes to believe it’s a piece of her heart but somehow the demon inside her stomach doesn’t like that thought, so she settles with offering Catra the rope instead.

“I’d gladly put on the work,” for you, she wants to say but she keeps that to herself. Catra accepts it no problem and soon Adora watches her friend start climbing. When Catra is a little farther away from the ground, Adora follows behind her, climbing in silence and drowning any intrusive thoughts already jumping in Adora’s mind.

They arrive at the top, seeing a pathway leading further up to the mountain. The rope didn’t lead them fully at the peak but she knows they’re tall enough to not be spotted. It’s colder here and the winds are stronger. Adora has to hug herself for warmth, her coat not helping her at all. She sees Catra doing the same and they make haste following the pathway going up.

As they walk further away from where the rope is, Adora can see the structure in the dark night. It’s covered in snow on top of it. Even from afar, she can see the decaying metal covered in rust. They go straight to the ramp by the entrance of the structure. It’s small and round, maybe only good for two or three people. The door, like the rest of the structure, is also made of metal with a number pad beside it.

She makes quick work at punching in the numbers, having some difficulties with her cold gloved fingers straining her but she manages. The door slides open with a ‘wooshing’ sound and without hesitation, they go inside.

“I can’t believe that’s your favorite number? Who has that many digits in their favorite number?” Adora presses the button to shut the door after Catra walks in. She walks further inside and she sees a fire pit, dead center of the room. The tower is mostly empty except for some stacks of wood draped with a cover to keep from getting wet and small debris of stone and dust on the floor. There’s also a small table off to the side, opposite where the woods are placed, on top of the table is a small box that seems to be free of dust or ware. Everything is made of metal which doesn’t make it any less cold. 

“I’m not some basic idiot where my favorite number is one, it lets people figure me out harder.” Catra offers some wood towards her and she accepts it with a scowl on her face, she knows Catra is referring to her. Catra only grins back at her in response.

She settles the pile of wood on the fire pit noticing the freshly burnt ashes inside the pit, “you went here without me?” She asks Catra, not looking up from arranging the wood to a proper formation to start a fire.

“Gotta get away from your dumbass sometimes,” her friend answers too nonchalantly. She looks at Catra from the corner of her eyes and sees that the bi-colored eyed girl stares at her expectantly, almost waiting for a response. She doesn’t give her one, opting to stay silent and ignoring the brutal storm in her stomach that formed from that comment. She stands up instead, hoping to shake off the knots forming in her gut, walking towards the table. She can feel eyes burning behind her head.

Adora reaches for the box on the table, handling it as delicately as she can. She opens it with great care like it’s the most important thing in her life, once open she instantly spots the crude drawing of both Catra and her on the inside of the opening. She smiles at that, it always makes her smile. She brings that smile when she faces Catra again now holding a handful of firestarters that they keep stealing from the Academy storage room and a box of matches.

“You can’t get rid of me that easily,” her smile still bright as she says not faltering for a second.

There’s a small pause as Catra gazes at her with that unreadable expression she always wears. After a beat, Catra laughs a dry laugh while shaking her head, “guess not.”

She’s not sure what that was but she decides to ignore it as well, starting the fire instead. She removes her gloves as she works and when the fire starts to get going she happily basks in the warmth it emits, holding out her hands to catch the heat. Catra joins her too, Catra’s Academy sanctioned coat rustling from the movement of her crouching beside Adora. The orange hue of the fire bounces back at their red coat, they stay there for a while, enjoying the heat.

Soon Catra stands and walks behind them, Adora can hear her stop and she can also hear Catra’s coat shuffle from movement.

“Are you warm enough for this to be open?” Adora turns to where the brunette is and sees Catra standing by an outline of a door, holding a lever with one hand. She simply nods to the question.

Catra pulls the lever and the outline opens upwards and a ledge stretches out from the floor, the structure buzzing from the movement. The cold air enters the room but the fire burns warmer than the cold seeping in. Adora doesn’t move but she hears Catra already settling in on the platform that formed.

“Are you joining me here or what?” Catra’s irritation cuts through the somber atmosphere and Adora huffs a laugh at that. She joins her shortly, sitting close enough to feel the warmth of her friend. They both look over the horizon that the tower overlooks. It’s a different scene than what they’re used to back in the Academy. No similar-looking buildings are scattering the land, no peacekeepers patrolling the streets. All they see are a vast amount of snow leafless trees and an abundance of stars dancing in the night sky, if you squint hard enough you can see something way out there. Adora doesn’t know what that is nor has she seen it but a part of her is telling her that it’s something breathtaking and something she’s never seen before.

This bunker is an old abandoned outpost overlooking away from the other districts. She knows that if you walk further east you’ll see another just like this and more if you walk far enough. They knew about this back in class when their teachers told them about an old war that happened years ago and how District 2 used to protect its land 24/7 from the rebels.

Now that the war is over and the threat of being overtaken is gone, these outposts were forgotten and abandoned.

They might have not built this nor did they start it but they made it their own, just like a lot of things in the Academy. This is their tower, their own escape from everything down below, their own world. She turns to a wall near her and sure enough, a marking can be seen.

**C+A**

A mark to show they were here once before. Something to show to the world that this is their own little corner where they can just be.

“Hey, Adora?” She turns to face Catra who shifts position, now hugging her knees. She looks smaller now, unlike the Catra from earlier where she appears bigger than she really is. Adora’s eyes soften at that, not many get to see this side of Catra.

“Yeah?” She responds, shifting closer to let her friend know she’s still there.

“Hypothetically,” Catra coughs first, looking unsure and looking over the horizon, “if we were to leave right now, run towards that direction. How would you feel about that?” the brunette continues, hugging her knees closer and tighter, still looking over the horizon.

Adora isn’t sure how to respond to that, frankly she’s taken aback by the question. She mulls it over her head, trying to find the best answer. She feels like she has a lot to say, that there’s an answer at the tip of her tongue but she doesn’t really know what it is she wants to say. She decides to choose the humor route as it is the safest. Humor is the one thing she chooses whenever she’s stumped by Catra’s questions or even just the brunette’s actions for that matter. It’s a great buffer for things she doesn’t really quite know how to respond to.

“Why do you ask that? Are you getting scared for tomorrow? Cause if you are, it’s ok to hide in the corner while I do all the work,” she says in a teasing tone wearing a big great smirk that she hopes Catra believes more than she does.

“No, you idiot!” Catra exclaims, moving from her fetal position to shove Adora, who falls to her side from the force. “I said hypothetically! Do you even know what hypothetical is?” her friend giggles at her, now more open than mere moments ago. It makes Adora smile despite being almost shoved off the platform.

“Does that mean that hypothetically you’re nervous about the game?” She throws a smug look at Catra, her elbow holding her weight.

“Oh my god, just shut up,” there’s no real threat there, Catra giggles, hiding her face with her hands.

Adora gapes at her for a moment, a swell in her chest beats rhythmically as she absorbs Catra’s giggling form. She frowns then, feeling like she owes Catra an answer.

She sits up and puts her hands on top of her crossed legs, she clasps them together while she looks out from the view they have. She wants to find that line of answers she wants to say or her brain wants her to say but she can’t find the words in her miserable head. She’s not even sure where to begin but she tries for Catra.

“What would we even do once we’re out?” If they leave now, if they run away together, everything that Adora has worked for will be for not. She’ll also leave behind the certainty of knowing what to do from years of planning. Who would she be if they run away from the path that was carved for Adora?

“Whatever we want, of course,” Catra stops giggling now and she can see the brunette looking at her with those brown and blue eyes. It's sort of overwhelming to be seen by Catra but it’s also comforting.

‘Whatever we want,’ she runs that thought over and over again, trying to gape what she wants. People have always wanted her to succeed, to be perfect, and be a champion. They keep telling her that what they want is what’s best for her, so naturally, she would want the same things right? And if she wants that, wants what people want for her then she’s not sure if she can run away but something inside her, something buried deep within her, that wrongness that’s been nagging her for so long wants to run as fast as she can with Catra.

“Would we even survive out there?” She asks instead, still trying to wrap her mind with all the intrusive thoughts running around her head. Catra giggles at her.

“What was it? Oh yeah; ‘I was trained by the best mentor in the best Academy for the games in all Etheria.’ I think a little trip in the wilderness wouldn’t kill us,” Catra mocks at her, using that obnoxious voice she uses when she’s quoting Adora. She shoves at Catra this time and in turn, her friend shoves back. They start an all-out war, giggling like they once were when they were young. They start calming down a few minutes later, going back to their original position. The fire is still heating their backside, it’s low cackling echoes through the metal outpost. Adora notices the wind picking up a little bit as she gazes back to the view.

“Isn’t it scary though,” she cuts the silence, “going into the unknown? We’re not really sure what’s out there, we don’t know what we need to prepare to face whatever dangers that will come at us. Aren’t you scared of just jumping in without knowing what will happen to you?” Somehow she gets it out, fragments of what’s on her mind put into words. The ever-growing rot in her stomach starts crawling it's way back inside her but the warmth that’s next to her keeps her grounded, especially when that warmth smiles at her.

“That’s the exciting part,” Catra says simply. Everyone says that between the two of them, Adora is the braver one. Adora, who always rushes in without hesitation, Adora who always does things head-on, and Adora who walks with so much determination that people around her doesn’t make her falter, but in truth, the only reason she’s braver than she seems is because of Catra and in all honesty, Catra has always been the bravest between the two.

Silence greets them again and the winds pick up more to the point where Adora has to hug herself for warmth. Her short blonde hair dances with the wind.

“Are you nervous?” Catra breaks the line of silence and looks at her with those eyes again, “about, tomorrow I mean,” the brunette continues.

Adora swallows something lodging in her throat at the reminder. She plays it cool and avoids Catra’s gaze entirely, enjoying the view instead. “Why would I be nervous? I worked my whole life for this moment. Everything is planned out and I trained with every scenario that might happen. I’m ready.” Yet something inside her says otherwise.

She dares to look at Catra after hearing no response from her and she sees that unreadable expression on her friend’s face again. Adora can feel herself sweat from this cold weather. Catra is the first to break as she sighs and moves back to looking out over the ledge. Adora follows suit, feeling less serene than before.

She hears some rustling beside her and she whirls back at Catra to see her friend fumbling about with her coat pocket. Adora furrows her brow out of curiosity, she doesn’t expect a tinfoil wrap emerging out of Catra’s pockets. Adora can only blink when the girl next to her offers it to her.

“Here,” Catra says, still not looking at Adora. 

“Were you carrying that this whole time?” Adora is dumbfounded by that knowledge.

“I was going to snack on it while we’re here,” Catra says matter of factly, her arms still outstretched for Adora.

“And you’re giving it to me?” Adora smugly asks, not moving to reach for it.

“Yeah, well I don’t want to have a full stomach tomorrow. Don’t wanna puke on some poor kid’s corpse you know?” Adora laughs at that, the infestation in her stomach clearing away with every snort that comes out of her. 

“Just take it. I know your dumb stomach is bigger than that dumb head of yours,” Catra insists, her voice sounding irritated but a smile hides somewhere inside. Adora notices the flush on her friend’s cheeks and she takes note to leave soon cause it might be too cold to stay more.

Adora takes it this time, calming down from her laugh but the smile on her face is still very much present. She opens the tinfoil and sees the portion of the gray ration bar she had earlier. She turns to Catra who is still avoiding her gaze, her smile grows wider. Holding the piece on each side, she breaks it in half and offers the bigger piece to Catra without a word.

The look on her friend’s face when she offers the ration bar engraves in Adora’s mind forever. The brunette looks at her questioningly but Adora just keeps smiling.

“I don’t want to puke on some poor kid’s corpse also,” she shrugs at her friend, and this time Catra takes it.

“Whatever,” Catra munches on the ration bar as she replies. They sit and eat while enjoying the outside view of their own little spot. As soon as they finish their bars, the winds pick up faster to the point where the fire flickers wildly. It begins to be too cold for them to stay any longer. Adora decides to stand and wait for Catra to do the same.

“Ready to go?” her friend asks her while looking up at her. Adora offers her hand at Catra.

“Yup. It’s getting too cold.” Catra takes her hand and Adora lifts her up. She turns away to deal with the fire that’s almost dying out.

“Hey, your jacket is ripped,” Catra comments, getting closer to Adora. 

Adora freezes on her spots, the panic rising increasingly. She frantically turns her head around to try and see where the ripped part is. 

“Adora, calm down it’s not that big,” Catra tries to get to her but Adora’s breathing is too loud for her to notice. The creature inside of her is back to torment her. Adora can already taste the bile forming in her mouth and she knows her eyes are blown out from the panic that’s rising.

“Hey, hey, Adora you’re ok. You’re ok,” Catra tries to ground her, her friend is already holding both her shoulders, trying to let her face those multicolored eyes. Something breaks inside of Adora.

“I-it’s not! How can I do this tomorrow if I can’t even take care of my coat properly! It’s ripped, Catra! It’s not perfect anymore! It has no use now!” She rambles on and on, her heart feels like it’s going to explode from how fast it runs.

“Adora, look at me.” She stops from the commanding voice of Catra and finally looks at her friend properly. She feels something warm on her cheek and it helps bring her down. “You are going to kill it tomorrow. Literally, you’re going to kill everyone and after that, this jacket won’t matter anymore because you’re going to leave this place- we’re going to this place.”

“You and me, at the end of it all?” she asks, her voice small.

“You and me, at the end of it all.” Catra responds, her voice firm, “now come on, let’s go back before Shadow Weaver does those weird check-ups in the middle of the night.”

They start to leave, leaving behind the fire that slowly flickers away from the wind. The ledge is still open for the cold air to enter and the sunbeams can reach the insides of their tower, shining a light at the still open box with a crude drawing of them inside.

  
  


⚔️

  
  


The next day, they’re put inside a room in preparation for the reaping day. All fourteen people inside the room are registered and wear a tight white long sleeve shirt with matching leggings. They weren’t issued any shoes or anything else, just the clothes they wear now. 

Adora sits next to Catra, who is idly looking at her nails, looking unbothered. She tries to survey the room to gauge her soon to be opponents. A few of them are younger than Adora expects. Usually, those who volunteer to be tributes are older and are in the last years of their training so it stupes her at seeing a few kids in the room. She thinks about how they’re so brave for entering at such a young age.

Most are around their age, she notices a few that she met in some of her classes, she also notices the boy at the cafeteria. He’s not looking at her this time, he’s casually conversing with the girl from the cafeteria as well. They both seem so relax about something that can change their lives. Most of them seem so relax and she envies them a little.

“I can hear your thoughts screaming from here. Stop that and fucking relax,” Catra reprimands her, still looking at her nails.

“Have you met me?” Adora reminds her friend, her legs start to bounce following the rhythm of her heart.

“Ok, fair point but can you try? You don’t want to look even more stupid than you already are on live television,” Catra drops her hand and faces Adora with a raised brow, “It’s about to start. You wanted this, now calm down.”

Adora takes a long deep breath, trying to still her buzzing body and mind. Before she can even begin to calm herself, the doors to their room open and a couple of peacekeepers enter with cloths in their hands. One by one they hand out these cloths to each applicant.

“What’s this for?” Catra asks the man in uniform.

“Don’t question me, applicant. Just take it,” the peacekeeper grunts at Catra roughly. Adora swears she hears Catra hiss back at him.

Another peacekeeper enters the room. This man doesn’t wear a helmet, unlike the rest. He assumes the position at the front of the room, taking control over everyone. His back is straight and he eyes everyone like he owns them. Unconsciously, Adora straightens her back as well.

“Listen up applicants. You will leave this room with blindfolds on and you will be escorted to the arena. You will do what you are being told to do. You will not remove the blindfold unless you are being told to do so. You will not move your spot unless you are being told to do so. You will not make a noise or talk unless you are being told to do so. If you were to violate these instructions you will be banned for this year’s reaping day and will be punished accordingly. Do I make myself clear?” The room goes quiet after he speaks. No one moves and Adora is almost certain no one breathes. He makes a ‘tsk’ sound and grabs a whip from his belt buckle, whipping on the floor so hard it makes a sound.

“I said, do I make myself clear, applicants?” He says again, his voice too even for his demeanor.

“Yes, sir!” They all say all at once. Adora notices that Catra doesn’t say anything at all and that makes her heartbeat too fast.

“Good. Wear your blindfolds. Reaping day is about to commence.” He leaves the room after he says this and immediately the applicants follow suit to his commands. The overwhelming darkness makes Adora panic slightly. Unconsciously, she searches for something on her seat, she doesn’t notice she’s looking for it until she feels the radiating heat of the woman beside her. Adora takes a deep breath again, calming herself with the warmth so near her.

She feels someone tugging her to stand, she doesn’t resist it. She follows every instruction, walks quickly, and stays still when needed. She projects a perfect soldier following what she’s being told.

Soon, she’s asked to stand still on a spot designated to her. She tries her best not to fidget too much. She cranes her ears trying to hear anything that can give her any ideas about anything. She doesn’t hear footsteps after she was left alone and she doesn’t hear a crowd roaring anywhere.

She tries to rack her brain for any ideas on what this year’s reaping day will be. Last year, the soon to be tributes were put in an arena gladiator style. The year before that the administration organized a mini hunger game, recreating the famous 75th Hunger Games in the woods.

Adora shifts her foot just the tiniest bit to get the feel of the ground. It’s smooth and free of rumble or grass. She tries to piece together what that could be. She’s assuming she’s alone from the lack of noises coming from all around her. The only sound she can hear is her breathing, getting faster from the adrenaline slowly working in her system.

Then, she feels the ground rumble and a mechanical sound erupts from the silence. She keeps herself from reacting too much, still standing as much as she can. When the mechanical sound diminishes, she can hear them now, the crowd cheering from the stand. 

A loud tap from somewhere near Adora stops the crowd’s enthusiasm and there is silence again.

“Welcome everyone to the most-awaited reaping day of all of Etheria,” a voice booms to the same spot she hears the tap. Adora’s blood goes cold recognizing the all too familiar voice. “Happy Hunger games to all.”

Adora can’t help but fidget her fingers with her leggings. She hopes no one can see her do it but she tries to stop herself.

“Before any festivities begin, let us all come to witness, the beginning of this glorious event with this video from the capitol,” the voice fades, and out comes a tune she’s all too familiar with.

**“War…”**

She tries to tune out the video, hearing it a hundred times over the years of her training but her head is too messy for her to strategize anything. She decides instead to follow silently what the video says, almost like a mantra to herself why she’s doing it.

It explains the war before her time, the one that gave birth to their tower on the mountains. It shows the destruction that happened and the death that followed. Adora recalls a few lessons about the war and how it started because there was an uprising within the districts against the country. In the end, one district fell and the rebel insurgency was punished. To ensure peace within the districts, they devised the Hunger Games to showcase the power of the capitol and also their generosity. 

The Hunger Games is the most awaited event all over the country. It’s a televised event in which everyone watches. Usually, the tributes are selected via lottery but when there was a resurgence with volunteers within their district, the leaders conceived a plan to choose who to have as their tribute. Thus, District 2’s reaping day was born.

“Such inspiring words from our President,” the voice booms again, once the video ends. “Today, we are here to bear witness to the strength, courage, and perseverance of these young warriors for our district. They have trained well in the Academy to showcase what a true tribute should look like.”

“My students, it is time for you to fulfill your destiny and show us that you are worthy. A win in the games is a win for our district. Take your blindfolds off and win for our district. May the odds be ever in your favor.” The crowd cheers again but it fades slowly away and gets drowned out by the mechanical sound from before.

Adora hastily lowers her blindfold to her neck, expecting to see the light of day but all she sees is a stone wall in front of her and a torchlight illuminating the area.

She doesn’t move, she surveys anything she can, trying to assess what her best options are. She listens first for movement if there are any. Making sure there is none, she quickly checks her surroundings, seeing a wall in front of her then noticing another behind her. The walls are probably too high for her to climb, despite what she said to Catra last night, she’s not a good climber. The roof is too dark for her to see but as she squints her eyes, she notices a slit in the sky, probably an opening. There are two pathways she can take between her. She takes a moment to listen to any movement before decisively she takes the path to the left, walking at a brisk pace. Her first priority is finding Catra in this maze.

She keeps moving in the direction she chose until she reaches a corner. She hugs the wall and opens her ears for any sound around the corner to avoid any ambushes. When she doesn’t hear anything and feels safe enough to move, she continues walking. 

Loud footsteps catch her attention, she swivels around trying to find the source and when she hones in on it, she follows the direction of the sound. She can hear them running around, back and forth, their bare feet slapping on the pavement. She knows this isn’t Catra but she goes there anyway.

The slapping stops once it grew too close to her. She looks around her surroundings, finding wall after wall. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees something move and she whirls around just in time to see green eyes stare back at her. Without a second more, a boy runs away from her.

She quickly follows after him, focusing on his footsteps but the further she runs the further aways those sounds get. She has to stop when she can’t hear them completely now. She looks around her surroundings again and deflates at how lost she gets. She curses herself for not noticing where she was going. She tries to follow her footstep and tries to memorize this maze for her to get a better handle of the situation when needed.

As she walks, she suddenly hears a rumble beside her, the next thing she knows, a wall goes down to the ground slowly, and there unravels a couple of people standing over the body of a boy she was chasing. They turn towards her once the wall completely goes down.

“It’s the golden girl!” One of them shouts and she notices it’s the girl from the cafeteria, with the bangs. She doesn’t know who the other one is but it’s definitely not the guy with the dirty blonde hair. They run after her and it takes Adora a second to process what’s happening before her feet move towards their direction, ready to fight them.

Before she can even take a step, strong hands grab her by the waist and push her to a wall so hard she feels like she broke a rib. Those hands then swiftly grab her by the neck, holding her in place on the wall.

“Looks like it’s my lucky day. I get to kill the golden girl,” a deep low voice says, his face mere inches from Adora. The hand on her throat tightens and her back is fully on the wall that it hurts.

She struggles to get out of his hold but his grip is too strong for her to counter and her air diminishes as time goes on. She can barely breathe now and her vision gets blurry. She half notices the other people surrounding them. The two that saw her catch up to them and they watch, the same goes for another two that she assumes came with the boy who is holding her with a tight grip right now.

“I thought you were better than this? Guess all you are is just a teacher’s pet,” her attention goes back to the boy and his eyes gleam with murder. She can’t believe that this is happening, being strangled to death by this bloodthirsty egomaniac. She knows she’s better than this, she’s bested people twice the size of this man.

“Cato, just finish her off. I want to kill that bitch that clawed me earlier,” the girl with the bangs says out to the boy who’s strangling her. It catches her attention because she knows only one person who has nails sharp enough to pierce the skin. That fuels something in her, hearing about her friend. She struggles greatly this time, trying to land a punch on him but he swats it away every time. 

She can already hear Ms. Weaver's disappointed voice, she’s angrier at herself than the boy that’s choking her. Her fight is fleeting as her air is as well. She closes her eyes, still trying to fight the inevitable, when- miraculously she feels a rumble behind her.

She snaps her eyes open and she feels a wall going down, sliding on her back. Without hesitation, she bends her back with the wall. With all her strength she brings the boy with him as she bends, bringing her legs up. It’s enough to kick him off of her, throwing him behind her, freeing from his grasps. The wall sinks fully to the ground and she rolls her body to stand, enough time to duck as one person lunges at her with a punch. She punches his stomach, making him double over and fall, clutching his gut.

Her throat hurts and she needs to breathe but another rushes towards her, his fist raises, she stops a punch, holding his arm then kicks his knee as hard she can, hearing a crack as she does. He screams out in pain. She uses the arm she holds and throws him over her back towards the rest of his friends. When she stands again, she notices the girl with bangs helping out Cato who is trying to push her away.

“Fucking get her!” He screams at his partner, pushing her away.

“Fuck that! Let’s just get her last, I want her friend first,” the girl insists, picking up the boy with the broken leg instead.

They start walking away from her, Cato the last to leave, staring at her with those frenzied eyes. “You’re fucking mine, the golden girl.”

She doesn’t follow them. She takes a deep breath trying to get as much air as she can possibly get. Her neck hurts and she can feel the bruises forming. Her blood boils from adrenaline and from anger. If it weren’t for the wall going down, she would have been dead. She can already hear Ms. Weaver reprimanding her. She takes another long breath to calm herself.

Catra’s right, she’s in her head too much to focus. She needs to focus and get her act straight. She takes one last deep inhale and starts moving again.

She doesn’t follow where they went, instead she goes the opposite way and tries to find Catra. She listens to her surroundings for any noises around. As she walks some more, she notices the lack of walls this time around, finding more pathways instead. This time she keeps in mind the routes she takes and any small details to help her not get lost.

She walks for a while, still not finding Catra. No walls have moved so far and she hasn’t seen anyone yet. She doesn’t know how many are left nor does she know if Catra is still alive. At some point, she stops taking note of where she turns and she feels like she’s been going in circles.

After reaching another corner, she pauses after hearing a few voices behind a wall. She tries to figure out how to get there, turning from path to path until she hears the voices clear as day. She crouches and hides behind a wall trying to listen. 

“Kid, you’re delusional if you think you’re getting out here alive,” the voice says and it’s familiar to Adora. She peers a little from her hiding spot and her eyes grow wide spotting a young kid being held by the head of the guy who broke his knees. The other boy with Cato is also with them, he leans from the wall, waiting for the boy to be killed. They’re in a dead-end, a torch illuminating the young kid and the one holding them.

“I need this kid, no hard feelings.” Adora gets ready to move but she’s a little too late as the broken kneed boy breaks the young kid’s neck. 

“No!” Adora charges in full force, slamming the boy to the wall as the young kid’s corpse falls to the ground.

“You bitch!” The boy sithes as she tries to choke him with her arm. She’s then forcefully being taken away from the boy as two arms wrap around her. Her adrenaline-fueled to the max, she runs backward with all her strength, slamming the other boy on the wall, letting her go. She elbows his head for good measure. She can feel the blood on her arm as she does so. 

She rushes into the one that killed the kid before he can recover. She slams his head on the wall and does it again until all she sees is red. In the distance, she can hear walls moving but she doesn’t stop until a hand forces her shoulder to face the other direction. She meets a fist to her face. She lets go of the boy, whose body drops lifelessly on top of the young kid.

Another punch is coming her way but she stops it just in time and head butts his head. Adora’s head starts to ring from the impact and her vision gets redder and redder. Somewhere in the back of her head, she can hear Ms. Weaver clapping. 

The boy stumbles backward holding his head, Adora catches him by clutching his shirt, then yanks him towards the other direction. She holds the back of his head and without a second thought, not even a pause, she brings the boy’s head to the flame of the torch. All she sees is redder and all she hears are screams.

The boy struggles after a while and Adora notices herself holding a limp body. A beat passes, then two until she realizes what just happened. She drops the boy she holds, it falls next to the other two on the ground.

She stumbles backward at the sight and the smell is the first thing she notices. The gray ration bar she ate last night suddenly threatens to surface from her. 

She wants to stop staring- she needs to stop staring and move on but her body betrays her and she digests everything in front of her. The two boys’ faces are marred to the point of being indistinguishable and the lifeless body of the young kid is buried under blood and brain guts. 

She wills her eyes away and dares to look at her hands, they’re shaking and splashes of blood can be seen. The monsters in her pit have never resurfaced so fast before. They eat her insides that it physically hurts. She did this to them.

It’s so easy to talk about death and killing. In the Academy, death is such a casual topic to talk about that growing up she became desensitized to what it actually holds.

Before her mind can fully consume her, another rumbling sound gets her out of her stupor. She doesn’t know if she still has a fight in her left but that tiny bit of adrenaline lingering inside her boosts her to turn in the direction of the wall going down.

She regrets it instantly. Behind the wall, that falls are two bodies next two each other, bloodied and mangled. Whatever adrenaline she has left she uses it to run. Run as far away as she can from the smell, the sight, and the idea of those dead bodies. She’s not sure where she runs but she doesn’t stop. She turns and swerves at any corner, any path she sees.

Her heart beats so fast and so loud that that’s the only thing she can hear. She’s not really sure what she’s doing but she just wants to getaway. 

Suddenly, someone jumps behind her back. They’re too light for her to keep on standing but heavy enough to stop her from running. She didn’t notice this person, not even when they were shrieking at her. Her mind is empty and instincts kick in for her.

A cloth wraps around her neck, trying to strangle her. She refuses to get choked again and rams her back towards a wall. It hits the person hard enough for them to loosen their grip on Adora. She grabs the cloth around her neck as she faces her attacker. She meets the eyes of the girl with bangs. The girl’s white shirt and white pants are covered with deep dark red. Even her bangs are covered with dried blood that sticks to her face. Something drops in Adora’s stomach.

“Your bitch of a friend is a coward,” the girl sneers at her before pouncing on her. Adora falls to the ground at the force. She grits her teeth as she struggles to get out of this girl’s hold. 

“I hope she goes to hell but doesn’t worry, I’ll let you join her.” Something snaps inside Adora hearing those words. She punches the girl’s face then proceeds to roll them over so she’s on top. She straddles the girl, growling at her.

“Where is she?!” Adora demands, holding both the girl’s hands on either side of her face. The girl only smirks and it enrages Adora more. “I said where is she?” It’s not a question anymore, it’s a demand.

“Hopefully in hell.” Something takes over inside of Adora. She feels herself lose control as she wraps the cloth on the girl’s neck, gripping it tightly as the girl beneath her struggles. 

Adora only realizes it too late after the girl’s eyes close and the wall beside her sinks down. She stands up quickly and lets go of the cloth. This time, she decides not to dwell on what her mind thinks of it and what the monsters inside of her do. She decides then, as she runs, hoping to find Catra, that this is the game. That whatever she does in here and whatever she’ll do in the games are all for her district. That still doesn’t stop her from thinking about what a monster she is.

As she runs, she notices walls plummet to the ground and there are considerably fewer walls than when this started. She can see the arena better and regrettably, she can also see the bodies littered everywhere. It’s still fairly hard to maneuver inside, the torches don't really give much light.

She sees movement up ahead of her. She runs closer to it and sees a glimpse of long brown hair before it hides behind a wall. Hope swells inside Adora’s chest as she runs faster. She can’t hold it in any longer.

“Catra!” She screams, hoping she’ll hear. She turns around the corner, her body pushing so much adrenaline. When she does, she sees a young brunette that is not Catra, trying to hide in a corner. Everything inside her deflates. The girl, however, panics upon seeing Adora and dashes away from her. 

Not even two steps in and the girl squeal in terror as she gets picked up by Cato. Fear envelops Adora, seeing Cato hold the girl.

“Her name is Catra huh?” Cato says that name so wrongly to Adora’s ears. “You know I was looking everywhere for her, but she seems to not want to be found,” his voice turns into a mocking tone.

Adora stays silent, eyeing the young girl in his arms.

“I mean, it’s only fair that I kill her right? You killed my partner.” Adora tries to step forward but she can see Cato’s arms flex to tighten his grip on the girl. “Yeah, I saw her body. Great job by the way.” Adora’s skin itches the more he talks.

“I also tried to look for Catra’s body,” her heart quickens at the thought, “but guess what, I didn’t find one either.” 

Adora clenches her fist at that revelation. She silently exhales in relief.

“So this bitch is hiding somewhere, being a coward,” he calls out to the arena loud enough that it almost echoes. “So now I’m thinking, who do I want to go to the games with?”

“I can spare this kid’s life then kill you and find your friend and kill her but then I thought; I can kill you and this kid right here, right now. And when the games start and it’s just me and your little Catra left, I’m going to enjoy killing her the way you killed my partner. I’m going to savor every moment knowing you’re rolling over your grave.”

Adora is shaking with anger. The scary part of her is screaming at her to kill, kill, kill. She holds off and tries to control any instincts that try to control her. Instead, she eyes the young girl again, who still struggles to get out. 

Adora waits for an opening, assesses what she can do and what she must not do. She might have failed to save that young boy but maybe she can save this girl. Then she sees it, the eyes of someone that refuses to die. 

The girl bites hard on Cato’s arm so hard that it draws blood.

“Ah, fuck!” he screams in pain, letting go of the girl for her to run away from him. Adora sees her opening and takes it. Ramming to him head-first, letting them both fall to the ground. She doesn’t stop and she doesn’t know if she can stop even if she wanted to. She continues to punch Cato in the face repeatedly. She continues despite the blood going everywhere. She continues despite the walls going down completely and only four remains. Her anger takes control over her. 

She only stops when exhaustion takes over her. That’s when it clicks in her head. The taste of blood in her mouth grounding her more. She stands away from the corpse, her breathing heavy. She notices the girl still there, hiding against a wall, staring at her like she’s some kind of monster.

It dawns on her then, that if Catra is still alive and no one else but the two of them in the arena, only one of them gets out alive.

A few hours ago she was willing to do anything to be a tribute and win the games, she was willing to kill. That’s what she’s been told right? To kill. But as she stands there, covered in blood she doesn’t own the simple thought of killing one more person makes her want to puke and disappear from this world. A part of her hates herself, for being weak, she can hear those thoughts running around her mind.

“What are you waiting for, just finish me!” The girl pleads at her, sounding so defeated that it breaks every part of Adora.

“I-” she needs to do it right? In order to win. In order to make her district proud. In order to live up to the expectations of people about her but she can’t. She can’t bring herself to do it and she hates herself for it. “I just can’t.” It’s almost a whisper but with the walls down, it echoes throughout. She drops to her knees, feeling defeated despite almost winning.

The girl comes closer to her now and she’s ready for what’s to come. She doesn’t fight it.

Something casts down from the walls and emerges to the light. She recognizes those eyes and she knows those freckles.

“Catra-” A loud cracking noise cuts through them and the girl's body falls in front of her. She stares from the body back to Catra who only stares back at her expectantly. She wants to open her mouth and exclaim. She wants to scream at Catra and be angry but nothing comes out.

Soon all four walls come down and the mechanical sound from earlier erupts. The roof opens and the sun shines inside them again and the sound of the crowd roaring with delight. Adora has to squint her eyes from how bright it is.

She feels someone tugging at her and turns to see Catra leading her to stand. “Stand up, they’re watching you.”

She stumbles but Catra catches her, successfully making her stand.

“The tributes of District 2! Adora Grayskull and Catra D’riluth!” Her mentor announces to the crowd and they go wild but all Adora can hear is the ringing in her ear and the screams from earlier.

  
  


⚔️

_“Adora, kill it,” her mentor instructs her but she holds her ground and clutches the knife she holds with both her hands._

_“I can’t! It can still live! What if she has pups to take care of?” She exclaims, on the break of crying._

_“You know what this is, Adora?” Ms. Weaver asks her, with that too calm voice._

_“A wolf, Ms. Weaver,” she answers and the tears fall despite trying to let it in._

_“Yes, my dear. A wolf. If you let it loose near you, they will attack you without hesitation and kill you on the spot. Do you want that, Adora?”_

_“N-no,” Adora sobs quietly and Ms. Weaver only ‘tsks’ at her._

_“Dry those tears girl. I’m trying to teach you a lesson,” Ms. Weaver reprimands her and she feels something disturbing inside her stomach. She does as she’s asked, using her white shirt to dry off any tears in her eye._

_“Wolves are dangerous creatures and you have to get ahead while you can. You must not pity them and you must not hesitate because they won’t,” her mentor says as she holds on to Adora’s hands, guiding her towards the wolf laying on the ground. “Remember what I’m telling you, Adora. If you hesitate to kill, you’ll be the one to get killed.”_

⚔️

She’s put in a room smaller than the one from earlier. She sits in a chair softer than the ones she’s used to. 

After the reaping event, peacekeepers escorted them separately to their own room. Ms. Weaver once told her that after being reaped, you get a chance to talk to your loved ones before you go off to the capitol. She’s not sure why they bother because the only family she has is in another room.

She uses this opportunity instead to breathe and try not to cry in front of thousands of people. She’s still covered in blood, they told her that she can shower on the train ride on the way to the capitol but she’s not sure if she can wait any longer.

She remembers the way they look before they die when she sees her blood-covered hands. She desperately tries to rub them off, wanting to peel off her skin to take away any reminder of the day's events. She’s a mess and she knows it. She hates herself for being anything less than perfect, for being weak for feeling this way. 

When the door opens, she thinks it’s a peacekeeper about to tell her that it’s time to leave but she’s surprised to see a small old lady who’s wearing big round glasses and a red daster dress reaching the floor, being escorted inside.

She blinks away the tears that form to look at the lady confusingly. She racks her brain to form any memory of her but she draws a blank.

“Oh, deary, look at you. You’re a mess,” the old lady tells her and she brings out a napkin from her body. She flinches when the lady touches her but she reassures her. “It’s quite alright dear, no one's going to hurt you here. I just want to clean you up a bit.”

She lets the lady do her work and she’s surprised to feel the napkin a bit damp. She’s not sure why that is but the dampness removes some of the blood from her hands and she’s grateful enough for the blood to be gone to not question it. She asks another question instead.

“W-who are you? Are you related to me?” She stops herself from hoping but hope is a fickle thing to have. 

“You don’t know?” The lady looks up at her surprise and stops cleaning her. Ador gets slightly impatient with that.

“I don’t know what?” She didn’t mean to snap but with everything that happened today, she’s starting to lose it.

“Ah, we don’t have time!” The lady goes back to cleaning her, she moves to Adora’s face, removing as much blood as she can and as grateful as Adora is for that, she’d rather this lady answer her question instead.

“What don’t I know? Who are you?” She’s getting desperate. She removes the napkin out of her face and stares at the woman.

“It’s not the time for you to know yet, Mara dear,” the old lady insists, still continuing to clean her. 

“Who’s Mara? I think you’re mistaking me for someone else,” she says disappointedly. 

“What are you talking about deary? The Grayskull bloodline runs deep within you,” the lady explains and that confuses Adora more. She wants to ask more questions, urge this woman to give her answers but the door opens again and the peacekeeper gives them a look.

“Your times up.” The lady doesn’t move though, she continues to clean Adora until all the red on her skin is gone. The peacekeeper comes close to them and she gets scared for the woman.

“There, all cleaned up. Isn’t that better?” The lady stands before the peacekeeper gets any closer. She starts to leave but Adora still has questions.

“Wait, you didn’t answer any of my questions!” Adora stands hoping to have a little more time with the lady but the peacekeeper is blocking her from reaching the woman.

“Don’t worry, dear. It’s not the right time for you to know. Come find me when the time is right!”

“Where-” the door closes on her and she’s left alone once again, “am I supposed to find you?” She finishes with no one to hear. She slumps back down on the chair, feeling more confused than before. 

There’s a whirlwind of emotions going around her head and she’s not sure how to deal with them. For now, she sits alone in a small room wearing a bloody shirt and letting the monsters inside of her fester.

**Author's Note:**

> As I stated before, I worked on this for months. Started thinking about it last September and worked on the plot from there. Everything is all planned out. There's already an ending. A few chapters have plotlines already, basically all I have to do is write it. Not every chapter will be this graphic and I think this is the worse of it but since this is the Hunger Games there will be death. Who will die? Find out in future chapters!
> 
> Again, this is loosely based on The Hunger Games. It took me a while to plan it out because I basically world build a lot of stuff to fit the narrative I wanted. It's all going to make sense in the further chapters dw!
> 
> I didn't re-read this chapter too much because my brain is such a mush right now so I apologize for any errors. I'm so excited to continue this and for you guys to read further chapters. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this and your comments are highly appreciated!


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